Good day, CIOs. Artificial intelligence cuts across disciplines. And as a result chief information officers in the auto industry are not necessarily hogging the wheel when it comes to deploying the technology, CIO Journal reports.

More like a carpool. Automakers are creating AI project teams made up of CIOs and chief digital officers, but also chief operations officers, heads of plants and heads of production, says Matthias Kässer a partner at McKinsey focused on automotive technology. Goals include reducing costs and being able to react more quickly to shifting market conditions.

CIOs bring perspective. “CIOs play a crucial role in helping auto manufactures embrace a digital-first strategy and focus investments on customer satisfaction, efficiency and standards,” says Chris Pick, founder of the TBM Council, a CIO trade group. CIOs across all industries are shifting roles from being “cost centers to value providers,” and having a greater influence on business-side decisions.

DOWNLOAD EXCLUSIVE: AI IN THE WORKPLACE

EY Finds Machines Can Work 24/7

Ernst & Young LLP is bullish on artificial intelligence’s potential to transform its professional services business both for clients and employees, despite broader societal concerns that the technology could displace human workers.

Jeff Wong, EY’s chief innovation officer, is focusing this year on expanding the company’s AI and automation initiatives after witnessing AI’s ability to significantly speed up work. There’s also growing demand for the technology among many of EY’s business units, he said.

The growth of AI could have negative impacts on society and human jobs, some experts say, but Mr. Wong disagrees. “The reality is that the return from AI, I think, is becoming really obvious and evident,” he said.

Case in point: the company spent the past 10 months developing a machine learning-based software program that can read hundreds of pages of contract documents and reduce the time it takes for humans to review and audit contracts, Mr. Wong said.

Now, humans review lease contracts, for example, in minutes instead of hours with the help of the program, he said. “Machines don’t get tired, they don’t take breaks, they can understand different terms across different lawyers and law firms that write different things,” he said. That frees up workers to focus on more interesting questions about contracts, such as the risks associated with them, he said.

Under Mr. Wong’s direction, the company is now training AI engines to read all types of business documents, ranging from annual reports to agreements and relevant business news. The goal is to build an AI-based program that could, for example, immediately provide a detailed report about how a specific transaction written about in a financial newspaper could impact a client’s business. The AI-generated report could include answers to questions about strategy behind the transaction, potential financial impact on the client’s market capitalization and impact on the client’s supply chain.

“We can get to that level of sophistication. We already do that as advisors, but (with AI) we could do it 24/7, instantaneously,” Mr. Wong said.

-- Sara Castellanos

CYBERSECURITY

Defense Department cyber report: Not exactly encouraging.Motherboard draws the attention to a Jan. 9 cyber report from the Pentagon's Inspector General which in the not-so-encouraging summary declares: "As of September 30, 2018, there were 266 open cybersecurity‑related recommendations, dating as far back as 2008."

Facebook removes more Russian accounts. The social network said Thursday it removed several hundred Facebook and Instagram accounts and pages linked to two operations originating out of Russia. Reuters has more.

VINTAGE TECH

2004 is calling. When Motorola first released the ultrathin Razr V3 flip phone in 2004, it became an overnight status symbol, the WSJ's Sarah Krouse and Rob Barry report. The new version from Lenovo Group Inc.revives the device as a smartphone with a foldable screen. Starting price is a very 2019 $1,500.

MORE TECHNOLOGY NEWS

Huawei targeted in U.S. criminal probe. Federal prosecutors are pursuing a criminal investigation of China’s Huawei Technologies Co. for allegedly stealing trade secrets from U.S. business partners, including technology used by T-Mobile US Inc. to test smartphones, according to people familiar with the matter. The Journal's Dan Strumpf, Nicole Hong and Aruna Viswanatha have more.

Adding to the case. The company has long been under scrutiny by the U.S., which has effectively blocked the company from installing its telecom equipment in major U.S. networks because of concerns that its gear could be used to spy on Americans.

Not a good month. Canadian authorities last month arrested Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou at the request of U.S. authorities. She is accused of misleading banks about the nature of Huawei’s business in Iran. And Polish authorities last week arrested Huawei executive Wang Weijing and charged him with conducting espionage on behalf of the Chinese government.

And now Germany. The country, one of Huawei’s most important foreign markets, is now exploring ways to ban the use of its products in the country’s telecommunications infrastructure, the WSJ's Bojan Pancevski reports. Germany is scheduled to host its auction for 5G spectrum licenses this spring

Google to raise GSuite prices.CNBC reports that the 20% price increase, with individual monthly rates for Gmail's Basic Edition increasing to $6 from $5 and the Business Edition increasing to $12 from $10, will take effect April 2. Enterprise Edition prices will remain the same, CNBC says.

One IT firm’s work order: Poll-rigging for Trump. In the lead up to the 2016 presidential election, Michael Cohen, then Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, paid a small IT firm led by John Gauger, currently CIO at Liberty University in Virginia, to rig online polls in his boss’s favor, the WSJ's Michael Rothfeld, Rob Barry and Joe Palazzolo report.

Microsoft pledges $500 million to Seattle's housing problem. The pledge to support affordable housing comes as the area suffers a shortage of about 305,000 housing units for middle- and low-income families, the WSJ's Jay Greene reports. The Puget Sound region, home to Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc., has been among the nation’s hottest real-estate markets

WorkingIt. The WSJ's Eliot Brown reports that Adam Neumann, founder and chief executive of office space giant WeWork Cos., has made millions of dollars by leasing multiple properties in which he has an ownership stake back to his company.

Fair trade. Some are discovering that as they remove Facebook Inc. from their lives, they are forgetting their friends' birthdays. The WSJ's Joanna Stern reports from the front lines of digital etiquette.

Augmented reality firm Niantic raises $245 million. Previous acquisitions by the Pokémon Go maker have bolstered its work in areas such as augmented reality, computer vision, neural networks and community building, says the WSJ's Katie Roof.